Obama talks immigration with Hispanics

Sen. Barack Obama on Tuesday seized on an issue that has defined his Republican rival’s career, promising a key Hispanic group that he would make immigration reform a “top priority” and would not take their votes for granted.

Sen. John McCain, meanwhile, mostly avoided the immigration battle that rankles conservatives and factored into early campaign stumbles last year. Instead, he focused his remarks to the same group on his economic plan.

The presidential hopefuls’ outreach to the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) at the group’s annual conference in the District underscored the importance of the Hispanic vote in November.

Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, praised Mr. McCain as someone who “used to buck his party on immigration” and someone who once “fought for comprehensive reform.”

“But when he was running for his party’s nomination, he abandoned his courageous stance, and said that he wouldn’t even support his own legislation if it came up for a vote,” the Illinois Democrat said. “For eight long years, we’ve had a president who made all kinds of promises to Latinos on the campaign trail, but failed to live up to them in the White House, and we can’t afford that anymore.”

Mr. McCain balked at Mr. Obama’s characterization and his campaign suggested that the Democrat failed to show leadership on the immigration issue. But instead of using the LULAC speech to offer broad promises, Mr. McCain spoke about how he would create jobs with his proposal for new nuclear power plants and his host of tax credits for families and businesses.

The Arizona Republican repeated his accusation from his Monday economic speech that Mr. Obama would raise taxes.

Both men voted for the McCain immigration compromise in 2007 and under the Republican Congress in 2006, though in a primary debate in January, Mr. McCain acknowledged that he would vote against his own bill.

They have nearly identical platforms for achieving a pathway to citizenship, saying they would secure the border, punish employers who hire illegals and improve the immigration bureaucracy. But key to the compromise is allowing amnesty to the 12 million to 20 million illegals in the U.S.

Mr. Obama told LULAC’s members that he “spoke out fiercely” about immigration, “fought with you” for the Senate measure, which never passed, and “marched with you in the streets of Chicago to meet our immigration challenge.”

He won cheers for promising it would be a priority his first year in office and saying “it is time” to “finally bring undocumented immigrants out of the shadows.” He also repeated his frequent campaign promise to pass the Dream Act legalizing illegal immigrant students. Mr. McCain opposed the measure last year, saying he “got the message, and the American people want the borders controlled first.”

Mr. McCain’s sole mention of immigration reform Tuesday took fewer than 200 words of a more than 2,500-word speech. He noted the failed attempts to pass comprehensive immigration reform and outlined what the legislation aimed to do.

It would, “fix our broken borders; ensure respect for the laws of this country; recognize the important economic necessity of immigrant laborers; apprehend those who came here illegally to commit crimes; and deal practically and humanely with those who came here,” he said. It would help immigrants “build a better, safer life for their families, without excusing the fact they came here illegally or granting them privileges before those who have been waiting their turn outside the country,” he said.

“Many Americans, with good cause, did not believe us when we said we would secure our borders, so we failed in our efforts,” he said. “We must prove to them that we can and will secure our borders first, while respecting the dignity and rights of citizens and legal residents of the United States of America.”

Mr. Obama offered bits of his biography, likening it to the plight of some Hispanics, and also laid out his economic plan.

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